City lets chance slip by
LACK of killer instinct has cost Gold Coast City a chance to put a bigger gap between themselves and their closest rivals in the NPL Queensland title race.
City conceded a late goal that led to a 2-2 draw against Townsville-based Northern Fury at Duncan McKenna Field on Saturday night and it led to coach Grae Piddick demanding a more ruthless attitude for the remainder of the club’s campaign.
Piddick felt the draw was an opportunity missed for his charges as they seek to win their first league title since 2014.
And especially after closest rivals Brisbane Strikers and Olympic FC both lost over the weekend.
“We’ve actually gained a point on our main rivals but we had a massive opportunity to stretch the gap again and, quite frankly, we blew it,” Piddick said. “There’s just no excuse for what happened today.
“In patches we were very good, and their goalkeeper was probably their man of the match, but we created a number of chances but couldn’t fin- ish them off and we paid the price with a couple of errors.”
Piddick challenged his players to not let slip their hardearned position atop the table with just four home and away matches remaining.
“The boys have just got to have a hard look at themselves and see what they want to achieve this year,” he said.
“We’ve played really well for large chunks, and I’m really quite happy about that, but if you want to do well in these competitions you’ve got to do it all the time.
“You’ve got to be ruthless. So the challenge for the boys is to find that within themselves over the next few weeks because they have got it in them.
“We’re still in the box seat. The result gives us a little extra room to play with the last few games but we’ve just got to go out there and do the job.”
Ten minutes from time Fury equalised when Jarrod Green dispossessed Roman Hofmann on the edge of the area before rounding keeper Matt Stein and finishing to steal a point for the visitors.